The chargesheet, filed by the Crime Branch of J&K police, says that the 8-year-old was not fed for the four days that she was kept captive. She was put on sedatives while she was raped by three men. The drugs ensured she would not cry out loud, not even when she was strangled.
The documents say all this happened under the watch of the temple custodian Sanji Ram. His own son, Vishal, his nephew (a juvenile) and a special police officer, Deepak Khajuria, are also accused of raping her and are among the 8 men who were arrested by Crime Branch.
It's a case I have followed from the day when the child's body was found on January 17. I have often trekked the forests of Rasana, where she was herding horses when she was lured away by the juvenile. A week later, her mutilated body was found among bushes in Rasana.
This was not a criminal act alone. The motive was to further what many political parties, civil society groups and lawyers in Jammu have been demanding for long that nomads and Gujjars, who are Muslim, should be evicted to prevent a "demographic change" in the Jammu region.
The Crime Branch's investigations have established that the atrocities against the 8-year-old were meant to strike fear among nomads and bakarwals, who count for about less than 8 percent of the population in and around Jammu, and drive them out of the area.
The nomads' demand for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in Jammu and Kashmir, which would give them rights to use forest land has been stonewalled by the BJP as its supporters hold that the Gujjars are encroachers. The state's Forest Minister Lal Singh has cited Article 370 which gives the state the right to clear or reject central laws to block the implementation of the Forest Act.
It's because of this reason of land and demography of its occupants that the hatred against nomads and Gujjars is running deep. Daily harassment, attacks and burning their settlements of huts known as "Kullas" is routine.
After the horrendous murder, what was more shocking that an entire village colluded to disallow her burial in a small plot of land owned by her father. The Hindus didn't want a graveyard to come up in Rasana village. The little coffin was carried far away. Her body had to be buried several kilometres deep in the forest.